Last week, more Alabama lawmen were arrested.
Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith was indicted on six charges of knowingly employing individuals as deputies who failed to meet minimum certifications. Smith’s chief deputy also was indicted — on a single charge of providing false information to the Alabama Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission, which certifies law enforcement officers in the state.
At least four of those uncertified deputies — all of whom carried firearms — were school resource officers. Just to be crystal clear here, that means Smith had some unqualified folks walking around schools with loaded handguns.
It is the latest in a long, long, long line of misdeeds and embarrassing acts committed by law enforcement officials in this state. And it has become a particular problem in the Cullman/Walker County areas, where an entire police department was deemed a criminal enterprise and disbanded and the sheriff’s office in Walker has been decimated by arrests and guilty pleas. That’s to say nothing of the multiple jail employees who have been indicted or convicted.
And what’s striking about all of it is that there has been nary a peep uttered by our state lawmakers.
You remember them? The folks who told you books, drag queens and immigrants were most definitely things from which you need to protect your family. And don’t even get them started on the dangers of transgender athletes.
Call me crazy, but I’d much rather have thousands of gay immigrant drag queens in schools passing out books with stories about transgender athletes triumphing than have a single uncertified officer roaming school hallways with a loaded firearm.
But here we are.
And where we are is a mess.
We’ve given law enforcement officers entirely too much leeway at this point, despite ample evidence that they don’t deserve it. Nor should they expect it, or be offended when someone dares suggest that maybe — just freakin’ maybe — we ought to place a tad bit more scrutiny on the folks who have the authority to take away our rights, lock us in cages and seize our assets.
Instead, though, as I’ve previously pointed out, we’ve done the opposite. Through various pieces of legislation, we’ve created a system in which it’s damn near impossible to hold a law enforcement officer accountable, even when that officer has quite clearly abused his power and mistreated citizens.
Cases languish in a tar pit-like legal process for years — and recent legislation made it worse. And that’s if you can even get a case past the nearly impossible threshold established by our lawmakers.
But what’s possibly worse is the silence. The tacit approval of the abhorrent acts by those who should be serving as a check on this abusive power. Because criticizing law enforcement, even when it’s necessary and proper, has been deemed a political liability.
It’s all part of the cowardly practice of politics that dominates much of America now. Where politicians believe their fears of being primaried are justification for acquiescence to disgusting acts and the awful mistreatment of citizens.
The “I’d love to do something about this stuff but they’d come after me” excuse. You see it at all levels now in the MAGA era, and this is another one. You critique a sheriff today and next year you get painted as a cop hater by some far-right goober in an unexpected primary challenge, and you risk losing the cop union support.
In the meantime, though, we’ve got sheriffs literally encouraging motorists to run down protesters in the street and threatening to kill other protesters. We’ve got a bunch of cops ambushing and killing a guy in his front yard during an improper repo attempt. We’ve got entire departments operating like the mob.
And still, no one on the right — the bunch that’s running this state, the ones with all of the power to stop this nonsense and restore some actual law and order — is taking a stand. A necessary stand.
This can’t go on. Because we can all clearly see that the problem is getting worse, and that every day more and more citizens are becoming victims. And every time one of these stories comes to light and the horror of the situation becomes evident, everyone asks how this could happen.
Remember all those times we gave law enforcement more leeway? All of those times we refused to hold them to the same basic laws as the rest of us? All of those times when we took up for them because their victims didn’t look like us? All of those times no one in power took a stand and called them out? All of those times we sat on our hands while lawmakers gave them more immunity and less oversight?
Well, that’s how.
